The Money Market

Benson's first novel, Dodo, was greeted with great acclaim and success. In it Benson introduces a woman as the central character who will appear in different guises in future books; a glamorous, entertaining, humorous, heartless and amoral person who charms many of those around, but causes great distress to others. A prolific author his works included novels, comedies, memoirs, social commentary, a number of outstanding biographies, books about many aspects of sport, and dozens of supernatural and ghost tales which still attract a great following. The Money Market begins: The curtain fell on the second act of Tristan und Isolde, and Lady Stoakley, who had been regarding the stage with a rigid and unmeaning eye, and sitting very upright, leaned back in her chair in the corner of the box, and, opening her fan, began to wave it to and fro, less with the object of cooling herself-for it was a June night with a temperature like that of midwinter in the polar regions-than of occupying her hands; indeed, she shivered as she fanned herself.